The 60s Scoop
Beginning in the 1960s, there was a mass removal and drastic overrepresentation of Indigenous Children from their families and communities into the foster care system. In 1951, only 29 Indigenous Children were in the foster care system in British Columbia, making up only 1% of all children in the system. By 1964, this number increased dramatically to 1,466 Indigenous Children, making up 34% of all children in the system.
The term ‘scooping’ comes from the practice of government social workers taking/snatching babies who were recently born from their mothers on reserves.
Children typically were given to middle-class Euro-Canadian families. The vast majority of social workers knew nothing about Indigenous culture or communities and had a Western view on what constitutes “proper child care”.
Physical and sexual abuse were not uncommon in the system.
Quick Facts
As you can see from the graph above, Indigenous Children only made up about 1% of the children in foster care. In the 1960s, Indigenous Children made up 34%. By the 1970s, Indigdenous children consistently made up at least one third of the total number of children in the system.
In the 1980s, the Government of Canada amended legislation to ensure that Indigenous children would first stay with extended family. If this was not possible, they would be given to another Indigenous family. If not possible, they would be given to a non-Indigenous family. In the 1990s, the Government of Canada created the First Nations Child and Family Services program which gave First Nations band the power to administer this program.